Federal workers\' pay, pensions and health premiums are on the line and definitely in the line of fire as Congress and the White House limp toward a solution to the...
Folks assigned to watch the backs of active and retired feds have a lot of skin to cover as the debt ceiling D-Day approaches. Pay, pensions and health premiums are very definitely in the line of fire, according to insiders whose job is to track the intentions of Congress and the White House.
Many of the experts say members of the federal family will be lucky to get away with only one hit like, for example, a one-year extension of the current two-year federal pay freeze. Others expect the damage will range from bad to very bad for federal workers, postal employees and retirees too.
If the politicians next week fail to come up with a solution, the other alternative could be widespread furloughs. Congress, of course, would be exempt.
Most of the worst-case options facing feds originally came from the bipartisan debt reduction commission appointed by President Barack Obama. It was supposed to come up with suggestions – which Congress could vote up or down – to save and raise money. It did. But, as with so many other bipartisan commission reports, Congress punted without taking action. Nothing new there.
Then the power base switched to the Senate Democrats, House Republicans and finally to the bipartisan powerful-but-manageable Blair House group. It is chaired by the vice president and composed of Senate and House leaders, and both critics and protectors of the federal workforce.
Insiders say the Blair House, or Biden group, is likely to come up with recommendations (many borrowed or refined from the debt reduction commission) that would be part of the or-else compromise Congress and the White House must reach by Aug. 2.
Those options are:
If politicians do their job and meet the next deadline (always an iffy statement) you should know by next week what your new pay, retirement and health package looks like.
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